Retail sales ticked up 0.6 percent in August from July as consumers were forced to pay more for heating oil, gasoline, and diesel fuel. Wholesale prices for gasoline leaped up 20 percent, year on year, jet fuel 23.6 percent, and diesel 41.1 percent.
Author: admin (Kendrick Williams)
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IS INFLATION HEADING BACK HIGHER?
In August, U.S. inflation moved up to 3.7 percent after registering 3.2 percent in July. It was the first month-to-month increase in a year.
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U.S. CONSUMER INFLATION, WHOLESALE PRICES SPEED UP IN AUGUST
U.S. inflation rose from July’s 3.2 percent annually to 3.7 percent in August, driven higher by rising gasoline prices, the U.S. labor department reported. Analysts had expected the figure to rise to 3.6 percent.
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GOOGLE ENTERS AI CLOUD CONTEST
Google has finally begun selling PALM-2, its most powerful AI technology, to the general public in an attempt to make up for time lost to Amazon and Microsoft, which have been offering similar tools broadly for months.
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IRS ENLISTS AI TO TRACK DOWN TAX CHEATS
The IRS is using some of its $80-million windfall from last year’s Inflation Reduction Act to bring AI to bear in tracking down taxes not paid by hedge funds, real estate investors, limited liability partnerships, and wealthy individuals, The New York Times reported.
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PENTAGON PLANS AI-POWERED AUTOMATED FORCE
The U.S. military plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build thousands of AI-enlivened drones, surveillance craft, and other nimble machines that are “small, smart, and cheap,” deputy defense secretary Katherine Hicks revealed in a 6 September speech to a defense industry conference in Virginia.
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OPENAI OFFERS BUSINESS VERSION OF CHATGPT
OpenAI has released a version of its GPT artificial intelligence tailored specifically for businesses that will help employees write code, search documents, analyze corporate data, and carry out a range of other tasks, the company announced.
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COMPANIES ARE FIGURING OUT HOW AI FITS IN—AND, YES, JOBS ARE DISAPPEARING
Automation in factories gutted the legion of blue-collar workers who made their living with their hands.
Now AI is automating knowledge work and it’s white-collar employees’ turn to be shown the door.
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SCHOOLS SURRENDER TO AI
Last February, the 5,400-student school district in Walla Walla, WA, banned ChatGPT. In August, the district held a workshop on how to use chatbots and how to teach students the skills to make the most of them. About 100 teachers—almost a third of the district’s faculty—showed up.
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MICROPLASTICS MAY BE HARMING YOUR BODY AND BRAIN
Discarded plastic—both large and microscopic—circles the globe, choking our oceans and polluting our food supply, ultimately finding their way into your body where they can accumulate over time